The US immigration and customs enforcement (ICE) arrived like the four horsemen of the apocalypse in Highwood, IL, last week. The task force materialized out of the news headlines and onto the sidewalks of a small lakeside town using “wellness checks” as guise to search for unauthorized immigrants.
Most of the 25 miles or so that stretch north up the coast from. Chicago are full of custom houses, mansions overlooking Lake Michigan — a suburban land of trust funds and land cruisers zipping around to soccer games. But Highwood is different. Its diversity rivals Chicago. About 40% of the residents are minorities, mostly Latino. And now, all of them, American citizens or not, have a target on their backs.
The word that ICE was in town started as an alert on a Facebook group page. Someone posted a comment, which was more of a question, wanting to know why “FBI” agents were near a school.
An activist I know, who wanted to remain anonymous, immediately jumped in her car and tried to find out what was happening. The activist, who had survived the Highland Park parade shooting two years ago, lived in fear that there would be another shooting in her town. What she found in Highwood was a new fear.
“I’m already done with this bullshit,” she told me. “We can’t sit on the couch anymore and let them deport…
